Posted on 12/12/2014 4:57:31 AM PST by Kaslin
The year is winding down with some good TV news: The amoral biker-gang drama "Sons of Anarchy" has ended its seven-year run on the cable channel FX, after a final season drenched in pointless sex and violence. Jax, the leader of the gang, shot a bunch of his enemies dead and then drove his motorcycle straight into the oncoming grill of a semi truck.
The show wound down into a relentless deathfest. Jax shot his mother dead, because she stabbed his wife in the neck with a barbecue fork. Most of the cast was slaughtered. And for what? It all seemed like a long slog of sensationalism for its own sake.
The Nov. 11 episode opened with an unbelievably graphic sex scene lasting a full two and a half minutes, depicting seven different couples. Adam Buckman at Media Post reported "this montage featured five heterosexual couples, and two homosexual -- one of which featured the transgender character ... and the other one featuring a jailhouse rape being simulated by guest-star Marilyn Manson."
Producer Paris Barclay explained that on the set, they called it the "f---tage." In an interview, Yahoo's Kimberly Potts told Barclay the transgender sex scene was "the most honest relationship moment in the whole series." Barclay described the awe and wonder of it all.
"When we did the first read-through, everyone responded in such a hushed and reverent manner to just the reading of it, just the lines. ... We knew that we had something great," Barclay declared. When they filmed the scene, "the entire crew applauded for at least two minutes. I mean, literally, with tears in our eyes. Everyone. I'm sitting there watching them applaud, in the middle of 'Sons of Anarchy,' a love scene which involves probably the most degenerate club member, the necrophiliac ... and this transgendered woman who really, for the first time, explains where she came from emotionally and what it's about."
Welcome to Hollywood, where the weirder it gets, the more people cry on the set about the "honesty."
Once the sex and the tears were over, the plot veered back into senseless violence. The show's primary antihero, Jax the gang leader, ripped out a man's eyeball with his bare hands. The eyeball was shown dangling from the socket, blood erupting from the wound, as other gang members kicked and beat the victim. Someone hacked off the victim's fingers with a knife, as the victim screamed in pain. A close-up displayed the severed fingers in a pool of blood. Jax then shot the man point-blank in the head.
It's a given that some in this industry will believe the finale proved a moral point, that the murderous gang leaders all arrived at punishment for their sins, making "Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter a moralist. It's quite the opposite. The whole point of the show was vicariously enjoying the sadism, the sexual calisthenics, even the school shooting that opened season six -- and since that wasn't enough, Sutter included two rapes and a man drowning in a bathtub of urine.
Sadly, brain-damaged TV critics compare Sutter to Shakespeare, which should have the Bard spinning like a top in his grave. Our "tastemakers" repeatedly adore savage antiheroes and demonstrate a boundless appetite for the grotesque.
I watched an episode or two many years ago. I found it to be contrived and unbelievable. To me it was a safe PC bet with respect to what group wouldn’t draw the ire of minorities (remember Clancy’s book “Sum of all Fears” PC modified Nazis replacing Muslims?).
There may be groups out there like this that wish they were like on TV, but not so violent, amoral or pervasive, IMO.
As for quality, the first six seasons told a complex tale pretty well, with the big moral dilemma whether the main character should abandon "the life" or not. The final (7th) season (which just ended) was notably lesser in quality. It ended pretty much as it had to end.
Yes, if you enjoy lots of sex and graphic violence, especially the violence. It makes the Hell’s Angels look like choir boys. Confession: I’ve watched the whole thing.
I think after you lived through the Opie thing, nothing was really that shocking after that. Unless maybe Abel had killed Gemma. Which leaves me to wonder will there be a sequel, some day with Abel Teller?
I must say the season in Ireland did not do much for me and I can't seem to recall how it was that Borofsky ended up at the restaurant serving ice cream. :)
“I have never watched a single episode...”
Same here. All I know about it is that I see a lot of dippy white trash who couldn’t handle a moped wearing SOA “colors”.
It was a decent enough show. Lots of Easter Eggs, what with the homeless woman/angel, the bread and wine, etc.
Apparently, they are developing a prequel to SOA which will be about Jax’s father and the founding of the MC.
I found the sex scenes to be a bit much. I felt rather like a voyeur at times and I found myself a bit embarrassed. But that was part of the story as well. So I would say it was well done over all.
Thanks for the heads up. Violent and gruesome I can handle. I actually just started watching it last week on Netflix. A couple of different friends are fans of the show and I just finally got around to it.
I need something to watch while doing cardio (elliptical at the gym, they've got free wi-fi). In the past I've gone through Miami Vice, Burn Notice, Breaking Bad, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, etc. On the elliptical I'm not looking for Shakespear, just something to avoid boredom that I can pick up and put down 45 to 60 min at a time.
We watched the Shield, that my husband enjoyed more than me. I really liked the cop show, I think it was called Southland? The one that had that kid from the OC as a rookie cop and the sarge from Band of Brothers as the gay cop? That was raw as well. I always felt ripped off by that one.
SOA, I liked. I thought it was well done. The actors were really good.
I loved the show. My wife and I watched the entire series and I hated to see it end.
Seasons three and four were somewhat slow at times, but overall, it is one of the best series that I have ever watched.
Yes, it was loaded with sex, violence, profanity and it was just plain RAW.
Another wonderful show that ends next season is “Justified”. I hate to see it go.
It’s TV, folks. It’s fantasy life. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.
It earned it's rating...when it was on, my son was not allowed in my man cave.
I will confess that I hate the Walking Dead. HATE it. But my husband watches it.
Just ask Stephen King!
I thought the acting was great as well. Loved Katey Segal. OMG, that woman!
Programs like this, that are wildly or even reasonably successful serve to incrementally “push” the boundaries of what is and is not acceptable on the television.
I’m sure the SOA replacement will have even more gratuitous violence, homo sex, trans sex etc...
It’s like a drug to some of these people in the tv business.
Bingo!!! Irish mobsters kidnapping a west coast MC president's kid is equivilent to Fonzie on skis.
I watched every single episode. A little boring at times since they couldn’t get past the definition of insanity.....doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. lol I thought the ending was perfect. Kurt Sutter knows how to do an ending.
I thought the family dynamics were very compelling. All the thugs killing each other not so much. But I was hooked early on the family aspect of it and how these guys managed to ruin so many people that they cared about.
Women stay with these kinds of men and I am always fascinated by it. Ever watch Prison Wives, there is another bunch that I just don't get it. But ...
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